What Is I’rab? Arabic Grammar (Nahw, Sarf) in One Sentence
I’rab is the system of endings that marks each word’s role in an Arabic sentence. Nahw, sarf, the four states, and one sentence analysed word by word.
· Written by Amaan
What is iʿrāb in Arabic grammar?
Iʿrāb (also written i’rab or irab) is the change at the end of an Arabic word that shows its role in the sentence. Nouns take three cases: -u for the doer, -a for the thing done to, -i after a preposition or for an owner. Present-tense verbs take three moods. The endings are short vowels, so unvowelled text does not print them and the reader supplies them.
Ṣarf, morphology, is how a word is built from a root and a pattern. Naḥw, syntax, is what the word does in the sentence. Iʿrāb belongs to naḥw.
Al-Ājurrūmiyyah, the short primer memorised for centuries, defines iʿrāb as the change at the ends of words caused by what governs them, in four states: rafʿ, naṣb, khafḍ (also called jarr) and jazm.
Nouns take rafʿ, naṣb and jarr. Present-tense verbs take rafʿ, naṣb and jazm. The usual signs are ḍamma -u, fatḥa -a, kasra -i and sukūn, no vowel.
The endings are rarely printed: case is not shown in standard Arabic spelling, apart from the alif written on an indefinite accusative noun. They are marked in the Qurʼan and in books for children and learners.
In قَرَأَ الطَّالِبُ كِتَابًا جَدِيدًا فِي الْمَكْتَبَةِ, “the student read a new book in the library”, six words show all three noun cases.
For the Qurʼan, the Quranic Arabic Corpus gives the grammar of every word, free. For any other text, labelling each word’s role automatically is still research software, and a primer with a teacher remains the route.
Naḥw and ṣarf: two sciences, one sentence
Traditional Arabic grammar divides the work in two. Ṣarf, morphology, studies the word on its own: its root, its pattern, how a verb changes for person and tense, how a noun becomes plural. Naḥw, syntax, studies the word in company: what it does in the sentence and what ending that gives it.
A reader needs both. Ṣarf answers “which word is this?”: كَاتِب is “one who writes” because of its pattern. Naḥw answers “who did what to whom?”: the same noun is the doer with one ending and the thing done to with another.
Iʿrāb, also written i’rab or irab, is the part of naḥw that deals with those endings. The word means making clear, and that is its job.
What exactly is iʿrāb?
Al-Ājurrūmiyyah, the brief medieval primer by the Moroccan scholar Ibn Ājurrūm, opens the subject with a definition students have memorised ever since: iʿrāb is the change at the ends of words caused by the governing words that act on them. It names four states.
Rafʿ is the state of a doer or a topic, marked by ḍamma, -u. Naṣb marks the thing done to and several other roles, with fatḥa, -a. Jarr, which the primer calls khafḍ, follows a preposition or marks the owner in a possessive phrase, with kasra, -i; it belongs to nouns alone. Jazm belongs to verbs alone and is marked by sukūn, no vowel at all.
Those are the default signs. Duals, sound plurals, a small group of nouns and some verbs show the same four states with letters instead of short vowels, and that is most of what the middle chapters of any grammar teach.
Why learn endings that are not printed?
Because they are there whether printed or not. Standard Arabic spelling does not show case. The short vowels that carry it are left out of newspapers, novels and websites, and written in the Qurʼan and in books for children and learners. A reader of unvowelled text recovers the roles from word order, agreement and sense. A reader who knows iʿrāb recovers them faster and can check them.
The endings also explain letters that are printed. The alif at the end of كِتَابًا is an accusative ending you can see. The difference between مُسْلِمُونَ and مُسْلِمِينَ, “Muslims” as doer and as object, is iʿrāb written with letters.
And they settle readings that word order leaves open. In the grammarians’ stock example ضَرَبَ زَيْدٌ عَمْرًا, “Zayd hit ʿAmr”, the alif on the second name marks him as the one hit, wherever the names stand in the sentence.
One sentence, word by word
Here is a sentence short enough to hold in your head: قَرَأَ الطَّالِبُ كِتَابًا جَدِيدًا فِي الْمَكْتَبَةِ, “The student read a new book in the library.” It has a verb, a doer, a thing done to, a describing word and a prepositional phrase, and it shows all three noun cases.
The analysis in this guide follows the order a teacher would use: name the kind of word, name its role, name its state and the sign that shows it. That answer in parts is what “doing the iʿrāb” of a word means.
A second pattern is worth meeting early, because it reverses an expectation. إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ, “Indeed God is forgiving, merciful”, closes many verses of the Qurʼan. The particle إِنَّ puts the topic that follows it into naṣb, so the name of God carries -a, while what is said about Him stays in rafʿ with -un. The Quranic Arabic Corpus analyses the phrase the same way: an accusative particle, an accusative proper noun, a nominative noun and a nominative adjective.
How much grammar does a reader need first?
Less than a grammar book suggests, and in a deliberate order.
From there the traditional path is well marked. Al-Ājurrūmiyyah is the first text, concise so that it could be memorised. Ibn Mālik’s Alfiyya, a grammar in about a thousand lines of verse, is the larger one; together the two were the foundations of a beginner’s education in Arab societies until the 20th century. English translations of al-Ājurrūmiyyah exist, the oldest by J. J. S. Perowne in 1852.
- The two sentence types: one that starts with a noun, one that starts with a verb.
- The possessive phrase: two nouns side by side, the second in jarr.
- Agreement: an adjective copies its noun’s gender, number, definiteness and case.
- The three cases and their default signs, as in the sentence above.
- The words that change a case: prepositions, إِنَّ and its sisters, كَانَ and its sisters.
- The moods of the present verb after لَنْ and أَنْ and لَمْ.
Which tools help with Arabic grammar?
For the Qurʼan there is an exceptional free resource. The Quranic Arabic Corpus, from the University of Leeds, shows the grammar, syntax and morphology of each word in the Qurʼan, with the traditional iʿrāb written beside it. Pick a verse you know and read its analysis.
For any other sentence, labelling each word’s role automatically is still a research problem. The tools that attempt it are parsers built for linguists, and their mistakes are hard for a learner to catch. The dependable routes are a primer with a teacher, or a course that teaches the patterns on real sentences.
Dictionaries cover the ṣarf half well. A good learner’s dictionary shows a verb’s present tense, its command and its verbal noun, a noun’s plural, and the root and pattern behind them.
Where Fasaha fits, and where it does not
Fasaha is strongest on the ṣarf side and on reading. Every word you tap shows its dictionary form, part of speech, root and pattern, and for verbs and nouns the forms you need to recognise it again: present tense, command, verbal noun, plural. Its graded texts are written with their vowel marks, case endings included, and you can reduce the marks or turn them off as you improve. Its translation tool returns any sentence you type, paste or scan with its vowel marks and a word-by-word breakdown.
It is not an iʿrāb parser. It does not label the doer, the object or the state of each word in a sentence, and it does not teach tajwīd or tafsīr. For word-by-word grammar of the Qurʼan, use the Quranic Arabic Corpus. For a full grammar course, a teacher and a primer remain the standard.
The sentence, word by word
قَرَأَ الطَّالِبُ كِتَابًا جَدِيدًا فِي الْمَكْتَبَةِ. Each line gives the kind of word, its role, and its state with the sign that shows it.
- Verb: قَرَأَ — read (he read)
- Doer: الطَّالِبُ — the student
- Thing done to: كِتَابًا — a book
- Describing word: جَدِيدًا — new
- Preposition: فِي — in
- Noun after a preposition: الْمَكْتَبَةِ — the library
| State | Usual sign | On nouns | On present-tense verbs | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rafʿ (nominative, indicative) | ḍamma, -u | The doer; the topic and what is said about it | The plain present | الطَّالِبُ يَقْرَأُ (the student reads) |
| Naṣb (accusative, subjunctive) | fatḥa, -a | The thing done to; time, manner and more | After أَنْ and لَنْ and كَيْ | لَنْ يَقْرَأَ كِتَابًا (he will not read a book) |
| Jarr or khafḍ (genitive) | kasra, -i | After a preposition; the owner in a possessive phrase | None | فِي الْمَكْتَبَةِ (in the library) |
| Jazm (jussive) | sukūn, no vowel | None | After لَمْ, and in prohibitions and some conditions | لَمْ يَقْرَأْ (he did not read) |
What is iʿrāb in simple terms?
The ending of a word that shows its job in the sentence. A noun ends in -u when it is the doer, in -a when it is the thing done to, and in -i after a preposition or as the owner in a possessive phrase. Present-tense verbs have endings of their own.
What is the difference between naḥw and ṣarf?
Ṣarf is about the single word: root, pattern, verb forms, plurals. Naḥw is about the sentence: roles and the endings that mark them. Dictionaries mostly help with ṣarf; grammar books mostly teach naḥw.
Do I need grammar to understand the Qurʼan?
You need the outline: the cases, the two sentence types, and the particles that change a case. The Qurʼan is printed with every vowel, so the endings are visible, and the Quranic Arabic Corpus shows the grammar of each word.
Is there an English translation of al-Ājurrūmiyyah?
Yes. The oldest is J. J. S. Perowne’s of 1852, which printed the Arabic with its vowels beside the English, and later translations and commentaries exist in print and online.
Is there an app that gives the iʿrāb of any sentence?
Not one we can recommend to learners. For the Qurʼan, the Quranic Arabic Corpus gives a full analysis free of charge. For other text, automatic analysis is still research software, and its mistakes are hard for a learner to catch.
Does Fasaha teach Arabic grammar?
It supports grammar through reading: vowelled texts with their case endings, a dictionary that shows root, pattern and verb forms, and a word-by-word breakdown of any sentence. It does not label each word’s grammatical role.
Sources
- Wikipedia, ʾIʿrab (the three cases, the moods, and when endings are written or pronounced)
- Wikipedia, Al-Ajurrumiyya (Ibn Ājurrūm’s primer; Perowne’s 1852 English translation)
- Wikipedia, Alfiya (Ibn Mālik’s grammar in about a thousand lines of verse)
- Quranic Arabic Corpus, University of Leeds (morphology, syntax and root of every word in the Qurʼan)
- Quranic Arabic Corpus, word by word, verse 2:199 (inna llāha ghafūrun raḥīm)
About Fasaha
Fasaha is a reading-first Arabic app. Every word in a story, a podcast, a video or an article opens into its meaning, root, pattern and family, and can be saved for spaced review.
- Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android.
- Interface languages: English, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, Uzbek, Spanish, French, German, Indonesian, Malay, Urdu, Italian, Portuguese, Bengali and Kazakh.
- Free to start; Premium opens the complete library and the stores handle billing.
- Teaches fusha, Modern Standard and Qurʼanic Arabic; it does not teach spoken dialects, tajwīd or tafsīr.
All posts
- Arabic graded readers for adults: what exists at each level, and how to pick yours: Adult learners of Arabic have few graded readers and no shared scale. What a levelled text controls, what exists in print and online, and one opening line from each of seven levels to find where you stand.
- Arabic–English dictionary apps for learners: which show the root, and how to look a word up: An Arabic lookup has three hidden steps: remove what is attached, find the root, choose among words spelled alike. What each kind of dictionary does for you, with eight words that hide their root.